Minnesota High School Tournament Time Has Local Schools Vying For Championships
The North Woods girl’s volleyball team missed school on Thursday, but they have a very good reason.They were taking part in their first state high school volleyball tournament.
They won the first two points of the match, but were overwhelmed after that. The Grizzlies lost to Minneota in game one, 25-13. They lost game two, 25-17. They lost the third set, 25-15 and dropped the match 3-0.
They are now 23-4 and will play in the consolation round later Friday at 3pm against Underwood at the Xcel Energy Center.
Two area teams will be playing at the state football tournament tonight, Moose-Lake- Willow River and South Ridge. For the Rebels, they are tournament tested, South Ridge making their first trip.The South Ridge Panthers will play at 5pm at St. Cloud State vs. Nevis in the 9-man tournament. Unranked South Ridge is 10-1 on the year and will be facing 5th ranked Nevis, who is 11-0.
4th time to state for the Tigers of Nevis. The Panthers excited to see the program grow and develop. Senior center, and linebacker Robby McQuade said, “We’ve won like one game in two years We stepped it up this year, now we have a quarterback, two wide receivers that can catch, turned it around a lot.”
McQuade was the one holding the section title trophy at the end of the presentation and didn’t want to let it go. He said, “Holding that up, was the best feeling ever. We dreamed about that since we were little to be section champs and go to state. We finally did it.”
The Moose-Lake-Willow River Rebels will take on Hawley. Both teams sport 11-0 perfect records. One team is moving on to the Dome, the other undefeated team will be done after Friday night.
Rebels head Coach, Dave Louzek hopes his tournament tested team has the advantage, “That’s the nice thing about this, you learn something knew each time that you have been there. These kids have had a really good season up to this point. Now we are turning everything lose and getting everyone fired-up and getting ready for three more games.”
They were in the Prep Bowl title game last year, and it turned out to be their only loss of the year. They fell to Caledonia 27-0 a year ago in the Class AA title game.
Senior running back Jake Disterhaupt is one of the top players in the state, and knows the importance of winning the section title, like they did last week. He said, “Main goal of this program is to win the section finals, because that’s what get’s you to state. State tournament every game is tough, and we know it will be ground and pound Rebel football.”
The Class AA state tournament game will also be played at St. Cloud State. The Rebels were ranked #2 in the state most of the year and will be making their 9th trip to state.
The Ely Timberwolves will be playing on Saturday also in the 9-man tournament, as they face Goodridge at 1pm at Concordia-Moorhead. Ely is 9-2 on the year and won their section title at PSS last week.
Head Coach Brian Lamppa was thrilled, “It’s unbelievable, it’s those kids there (pointing to players) great, great bunch of kids, they work hard, they do anything I ask them to do. This is a great bunch of kids.”
He knows how rare this is. He said following the section victory, “Ely hasn’t done this since 1988 or 1989. Look at the fans here, they have supported us all year. It’s a great feeling, all of the hard work. August 13th you look back, hot. These kids just never quit.”
Dome or done….time will tell. Best of luck to all five of the Northland teams remaining!!
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